afterglow - tony stark

12

FLASHBACK

"Please, Father, don't make me do it," she pleaded as she pulled on his hand.

He smacked her and she fell to the ground from the force of it. She was only nine.

She cried as she laid on the floor because of the crimes he wanted her to commit. She never wanted to hurt anybody despite all his attempts to make her the weapon he wanted her to be. Even the people he made her fight she'd always have them gently thrown to ground or have vines catch them before they hit the walls.

She didn't want to hurt people despite always being hurt herself.

Obadiah looked down at her in disappointment, "Stop crying."

She only cried harder and he sighed before he grabbed her by the legs. He started dragging her and she thrashed as she knew where he was taking her.

"No, please," she begged as her fingernails made marks on the floor. "Please."

He picked her up by her ankle and threw her into a small chest that she could fit in because she was so tiny, "You won't go back in here once you learn how to act."

And he slammed the top of the chest before locking it. She was left in the dark and she banged at the door, "Let me out. Please, let me out."

She never received an answer and eventually she stopped banging. He left her in there for five days without food or water.

When it opened, she shielded her face from the light as he stared down at her, "Have you learned how to act?"

She let out a small sob at the thought of what he wanted her to do but she quickly quieted it. Then she nodded obediently with a hoarse voice, "Yes, Father."

"Good."

             It was only a couple days later that he sent her to do what she was told. She was dropped off on the side of the road and hid in the woods as she waited for a specific car to come by.

             She was supposed to run it off the road and kill the passengers inside. She tried not to think about the people, only the car. She was destroying a car. Yeah, a car.

         As soon as she saw it, she used the wind to push it off the road and into a tree. She had branches grow out that impaled the people and it killed them instantly.

           When she was picked back up by Obadiah, she was stone-faced before she started sobbing so much that she couldn't stop. Her father couldn't stand the weakness and put her back in the chest.

             She refused to ever hurt another person ever again. It made her spend a lot of time in the chest. She thought she deserved it. She was only nine but she wished she would die; she deserved it.

            ____

          When she was twelve, Obadiah became increasingly frustrated with her. He wanted to get rid of her, his own daughter.

           "You were very good in training today," he lied as they stood on an open balcony.

            "I was?" she looked up at him in surprise; was Father actually proud?

            "Of course," he gave her a fake smile as he placed a hand on her back.

            She almost started to smile but then he pushed her...off the balcony. She screamed as she tried to reach for him to grab onto but she fell three stories.

             She was so skinny and malnourished that it was miracle she survived. But she hit her head so hard that she forget everything and when she woke up, she was in a cave.

After what happened, the press had a lot of questions. An agent of SHIELD had come up with the story. Tony was supposed to say that this iron man was a bodyguard in a suit and the lightning strikes near his house that took out the whole West Coast was unrelated. Obadiah's death was being reported as an accident. He was supposed to follow the cards and the script.

He did not.

"I am Iron Man."

The press went wild as she watched it on the TV in the Stark Industries room. She didn't want to go out there with all the people. But Tony ate up all the attention.

She smiled before she went and sat down. Eventually, Tony came back in the small room with a wide smirk, "They all love me. Tell me you love me, Snowflake."

"No," she couldn't help but smile as he sat down in the chair across from her. "Apparently, you have everyone else telling you that. So why would I?"

"Well, I think it'll only sound good coming from your lips, angel," Tony argued playfully.

She shook her head, "No."

Then she looked down at her lap as she fumbled with her hands. Tony noticed she'd been doing it for the past few days; she'd be in the conversation and then she'd space out with a sad look on her face.

"You gotta tell me what's bothering you, Snow," he said softly.

They'd found a hidden birth certificate on the files Obadiah had. The whole world now knew her as Eira Stane which made her the heir to all his fortune and stocks of Stark Industries he owned now that he was dead. But Tony still called her Snow.

"I did something bad," she admitted with glossy eyes.

"Well, lay it on me," Tony said. "What is it?"

"My father had me kill two people when I was nine..." she confessed as some tears fell.

"He forced you to do it, Snowflake," Tony rubbed her arm. "It's not your fault."

"But it makes me a monster," she cried.

"No," he immediately denied. "You could never be that, Eira."

  It was the first time he called her that and she cherished the way he said her name. He said it so softly and delicately like it was the only sound worth speaking. She dreaded what she would have to say next.

"It was 1991 and I ran a car off a road..." she said carefully with tears falling down her face as Tony froze and his eyes widened. He knew that year and he knew what she was trying to say. He felt sick to his stomach. No. This had to be the worst day of his life. "And I don't have enough apologies to give you but I'm sorry, Tony."

           He dropped his hand from her arm and sat back in his seat like she'd slapped him. He had this heartbroken, furious look on his face but he didn't say a word. He didn't need to; it was obvious. There was a shadow that set in between them, an afterglow.

AN: yes, she killed Tony's parents instead of Bucky. I'm not doing Civil War so it doesn't even matter that Bucky did so in the movies plus that poor man has a plethora of deaths he caused, he could do with not having this one